Does is sound exciting? If you still need inspiration, here are some beautiful artworks by our Design Team, we are sure they will spark your imagination!

The idea for this piece was growing in my head for a long time. And
suddenly I realized that it goes perfectly with our new challenge on
Mixed Media Place. I wanted to do something abstract, geometric, with
contrast and very vivid colors.

Then it was a time for creating my
black background. And to be honest - I spent about three hours creating
it, 'cause my black still wasn't looking the way I wanted. Then the
blissful inspiration came - and it was ready! And I was absolutely over
the moon with it.

And... an amazing story happen. The "blissful inspiration" was "just" a song. I
love creating with music around me and it has to be the right music for
the specific moment.
I was really struggling with my black background,
so I texted my very special person asking for musical
inspiration which would change my mood - works every time. ;) I chose Hozier first. And before the first song on the
album
("Take me to church") ended - my background was ready.
And - the next morning - amazing and talented Marianne Johansson (who is by the
way our new designer in Mixed Media Place!) posted on facebook a video to the very song that made me so inspired. I can't even tell you on how many levels it
moved me. It's just something magical, spiritual, so deep and meaningful
to me... It's just a perfect fit for my piece.

Creating something like this brings so much joy to
me. No masks, stencils, stamps, no scrapbooking products - just paints
and pure creativity. You should really try this - if you haven't already. :)

Materials from Mixed Media Place:

I adore colour, deep and rich and lots of it, and colour looks great on a
dark background. Producing this piece really made me think.

I have not
used any coloured papers or white gesso (except for a very small section
under some tissue) on top of my black background, so all the colour
comes from modeling paste, distress stains, embossing powders, sequins
and thread.

I had to think in reverse… normally we add black highlights
onto white backgrounds and colour shows up very easily on a white
backgrounds, but not on black.

I started with a piece of 12x12 chipboard and coated it with Heavy Black Gesso.
Using a Finnabair church windows stencil (available soon!), I pressed embossing ink through
it and embossed with white and did the same with a multi circle stencil
and embossed with gold. All the chipboards have been embossed with white
or gold.

Now to introduce some real colour. I splattered several colours of
Distress Stains onto my black background, the colour disappeared
straight away, I could see where it was wet but not what colour it was.
Before it dried completely, I spread Modeling Paste through
the Prima Elementals “Harlequin” stencil and the modelling paste picked
up the colour beautifully.

Did the same again with the small diamond
stencil and Finnabair’s Doily Stencil. I was aiming for a sort of
“churchy stained glass” effect.

As always I had to add some tissue at the base of the photo. What I love
about tissue is its transparency, but on black it was never going to
work. So I traced around the tissue shape, filled it in with Heavy White Gesso and then stuck it down with Soft Matte Gel.

I
started by creating my statuette : first, I made a wire structure, then
with polystyren, aluminium foil, masking tape, I gave some volume to the
future Miss Butterfly. A mix of Powertex and Stone Art helped me to
model the chest, the arms and the head, then I created a plaster
face.

When
the chest was dry, I arranged some linen and paper around the body of
the statuette. I used some Gold Silks to highlight the paper.

I
decorated the pedestal with a stencil and a 3D Matte Gel. When dry, I
primed the pedestal with black Gesso, then with black Powertex. I used
some Gold Silks to highlight the design too.

I
colored the butterflies die-cut in a watercolor paper with Twinkling H2Os and Gelatos. I finished them with a light touch of gold wax.

Materials from Mixed Media Place:

This palette is an
ode to Black Gesso and Pan Pastels. The moment I saw the new
pearlescent Pan Pastels and tried them in my mini album for my husband,
I have been dreaming about doing this kind of project. So this
challenge was the perfect playground to bring out the bibs and bobs,
the gesso and the lovely pastels!

The effect is
similar to that of oil but much softer. The colors are brushed on top
of the plain colored black and shimmer in turquoise, green, blue,
gold and white.

These kinds of
projects are perfect to use all the strange bibs and bobs. Can you
find a juice cap there? Or old money? What about two metal catches
from an old bag? There's also a Christmas decoration, pair of old
scissors, two markers that didn't have any coloring left, an Ikea
pencil, several bottle caps and several blooms.

All acrylic paints are by Claudine Hellmuth.
I altered 7 Dots Studio Nature Walk chipboard pieces using Emboss It dabber from Ranger, Embossing Sticky Powder and Finnabair Glitter Set - Abloom. The edges of the card are finished with Prima Chalk Ink.

Materials from Mixed Media Place:

And now it's time to
announce the winner of our Creative Gym Exercise #4. However, this month we decided to do it differently.

Kasia's Exercise was all about no judgement and no pressure so we decided not to vote this time. Somehow, we thought it wouldn't be fair to decide on "the best" work. That's why this month we are using random.org to choose the winner.

And the winner is....

... Kris... !

make sure you visit her blog to see her Intuitive Painting Exercise accompanied by a beautiful poem she wrote!

So... what do you think? Are you feeling inspired? Don't wait! Grab all
the colors you have at home and have fun splashing them on some black
background. :)

You have time until March 16th. Simply add a link to your work using the inlinkz tool below.Our
Design Team will then choose their favorite piece and its author will
win a discount coupon to be used in our Mixed Media Place Store.

13 comments:

OH dear heavens....it would be nearly impossible to perform CPR on oneself if one were to pass out; which this DT's offerings nearly made me do! I am next to speechless; which implies I can still speak but there is much drooling....These are GORGEOUS makes. Thanks so much for the incredible inspiration. I hope to get a chance to jump in for the first time ever.Lisa x

I'm so glad I came across your blog and all the talented people who create for it and participate in these challenges. I look forward to future challenges and future inspirations. Everyone's creations are so beautiful. I love seeing the unique eye of each artist. Great job!

Dear heavens the DT creations are gorgeous! I just did a piece with a black gesso base my the ColourArte blog and thought I really need to do this more often! Wish I had time to participate in this one!